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MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL COURT 

OF MASSACHUSETTS: 



COUNTER HEMONSTRANCE OF SAID SOCIETY 



Remonstrance or " Memorial of the Massachusetts Historical 

Society '' against the Petition of the former for 

A change in its Corporate Name. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY DAVID CLAPP, 

1858. 



rC 



EEMONSTEANCE 



i^ The New England Historic-Genealogical Society" to the 
Members of the General Court: 
The undersigned respectfully represents, that " The New Eng- 
land Historic-Genealogical Society " was incorporated on the 8th 
of March, 1845, ■• for tlie purpose of collecting, preserving, and oc- 
casionally publishing, genealogical and historical matter, relating 
to early New Endand families, and for the establishment and 
maintenance of a Cabinet." Said act was accepted, and the boci- 
ety is now in a flourishing condition, having about two hundred and 

fiftv resident members. , -,• ^ ,i 

Some months ago, the Society, by a imanimous vote, direc ed 

Us Board of Directors to apply to the General Court for a 

anoe its corporate name, to that of THE NEW ENGLAND 

HISTORICAL InD GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

Accordinglv the Directors appointed the undersigned, being 
one of their number, to take charge of the matter. He therefore 
pr pared a petition, which was presented to the Senate during 
the current session. That body referred it to the joint Standing 
Committee on Education. 

As the undersigned did not anticipate objections ^-om any 
quarter, the idea of opposition from the Massachusetts Historica 
So ietv with many of whose members he has the p ea.ure of 
being'a qnainted, never crossed his imagination. He find , ho.- 
L that he was mistaken; for a ^' Memorial;' m the na ure o 
Tp test against the prayer of the petitioners formally adop ed 
by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and signed by a number 
o its members, of the highest character and standing m this com- 
mn^iitv,has be^n printed and circulated among the members of 
he General Court; and he cannot permit it to pass nnnoticed. 



In the outset, the undersigned invites attention to the preamble 
of the Act of 1794, entitled ^^ An Act to incorporate a Society 
by the name of The Massachusetts Historical Society,'' as impor- 
tant to a clear understanding of this case. It is as follows : 

" Whereas the collection and preservation of materials for a 
political and natural history of the United States is a desirable 
object, and the institution of a Society for these purposes will be 
of public utility." 

The act then proceeds to incorporate sundry gentlemen '' for 
the purposes aforesaid." 

By a subsequent provision, the number of members is limited 
to sixty. So recent as April 2d, 1857, an act passed authorizing 
the Society to elect '•' associate or corresponding members resid- 
ing without the limits of this Commonwealth, or honorary members 
residing either within or without said limits," and to have " as 
many as one hundred resident members:" a privilege, by the 
way, of which, it is understood, the Society has not availed itself, 
to any appreciable extent. 

It appears, then, that the Massachusetts Historical Society was 
created for collecting and preserving materials for apolitical and 
natural history of the United States. 

The undersigned marvels that it did not put forth its energies 
to prevent the incorporation of the Xatural History Society of 
Boston, that of Lynn, and sundry other Societies chartered to 
encourage and advance the study of Natural History, and the 
pursuit of historical investigations, as reprehensible infringements 
on its corporate rights. 

The undersigned has been unable to discover any evidence of 
such opposition to those associations, trenching as they manifestly 
do upon the jurisdiction assumed by the Massachusetts Histori- 
cal Society. Possibly it has abandoned the subject of Xatural 
History, in order to give greater attention to the other subject 
contemplated in its act of incorporation, " the political history of 
the United States," 

Are there not branches or departments of history, other than 
"political,'' to which a New England Historical Society may 
direct its inquiries, and publish the results, without interfering 
with the vested rights of the Massachusetts Historical Society ? 



No man can hesitate to give an affirmative answer, and to ask, 
in return, ^' Wherefore this interference with a sister society in 
pursuit only of its chartered rights ? " 

But suppose the response is in the negative. Will the opposi- 
tion of the Massachusetts Historical Society to the application of 
the Petitioners for a change of name, or even its rejection by the 
General Court, be of any advantage to the Memorialists ? Not 
in the least degree, in the judgment of the undersigned. 

The ^' MeinoriaV states that the Society which the undersign- 
ed has the honor to represent, was incorporated by " the name of 
the Historic-Genealogical Society," and that " it proposes to be 
called the New England Historical and Genealogical Society," 
and then bases an argument against the petition founded on 
" these statements " ! 

At " these statements " the undersigned must be permitted to 
express his extreme astonishment, as they contain a serious error, 
on which error or mistake the Memorialists have constructed the 
most prominent of their arguments against the request of the 
Petitioners ! 

The corporate name of the Petitioners is, '' The New England 
Historic-Genealogical Society," and not ^' the Historic-Genealo- 
gical Society." Of course, an argument predicated on this fatal 
mistake is entirely fallacious. The words "New England " are 
part and parcel of its corporate name. They will remain so, 
even if the General Court refuse the desired change ; and there- 
fore the present opposition to it, even if successful, must prove 
a barren victor^^ 

Tills unaccountable error deprives the " Memorial " of all 
vitality; for if the name "New England Historic-Genealogical 
Society " now jars the sensibilities of the " Massachusetts His- 
torical Society," it Avill unavoidably continue to do so, for its 
corporate name is almost identical with that which the Petition- 
ers solicit, and the Memorialists so much fear. 

What is the difterence ? Merely the addition of the syllable 
"aZ" to the word " Historic,'' and the insertion of the conjunc- 
tion " and " after it ! 

These minute alterations are all that the Petitioners ask, and 
they will doubtless continue to ask for the change until it is granted, 
as they have a perfect right to do. 



I^ is said m tike -^Memmiml" dat ^ the word Uiai mr it fcas oc- 
cm^r^iei aiaay iK?o»TeBk«ees to boA Societies.^ TTie vnder- 
snei v^ n:*! a^izv of ii. B« «ie word - £r»#»r>o>/.'* vkick 
seMLS !-> 1^ ?<-e Of* ouMMS uipon^ will sot nvhipiT tbem. 
4rs3r - i-C"^ a Hide trovble k^ beem cK^ed to o«r Sem^tauries 
azri Lfr<:^r5£[^~~ s&j i^ Me»<maLlist^~ -^ in itiiig ^e lisktM 
di=criiLiii£ii>- iZri d^- z^ ~ of eoatrilwtioss adbdnessed fro» 

I '"^- - "----; - _7 ifee vadeisssed is emtirelT saitis- 

1 ::Ti: X^^ E^lud Histimc^Geaiealoeieal 

S-: : riy. s-j ^x^r-si^ely knrTu as am acctM^di^ed and devoted 
1^- — - - ^-^T p«t mp WI& Kcse trodUe by reasoa of 

^ i!!= fcoMMfiwiBj. 3t s peiiod coBsiderablT 

to I- ji tbe Xr^ Zz_: i-i Histonic-Geitealo- 

Ifor tfee 3- ~ -toxical So- 

ciei7 ^ms Ubrar. 3eer« lare 

€3£i: r^e^speetire existence- 

He - rae coatTir J. ^-e w^^ gr^aiiSed at tlie 

--^ Mait^' - - — ' -inatioB. 



Ji^ tfcpe Boft^istzas^is save a{»p^»e 1 rial a cata- 

lo^^^ of tibe wi»i5 pdMi^=fced by tiif 1^ " -torical 

Society, ^be ^idef^ssed gd b Mllat; a stj. . to die 

Tr>£iC2L«5s issi^i zj tfc? X-^v Esslaad Historic-Gti 1 Soci- 

^y. ^vi^9Q«i ^fee least sfif rfhcmd am^ tbat tbe lattef zer, 

B liis resard- *'- i — :'tt^ -,-__-._-.- ^---- ;-- ^ _ . .est 

-T-e Hi^i»kal - is^is i^.stitjz:ei i^ 1790. 

-Tu^ Massaekasetts jzl-s-^^j^ Sooeiy" ^as ii^irp^^r^&ted ia 

TokmL ibssadkasetts Historieal Sooety's CoHee- 

^^ i^ iBpUet f««»i ia 119± To tbe year 183^ 

— r - 17^5 — :_- - . --ty bi issaed 27 xotmmes. b«t bad a^ed 
i_ . r-i r*^j^st^ p"?r«aary a^staaee froai tbe State- 

7: n 1 * ! ' 1 ^— — ^ 7^'--'- — dbe Society isaed bat a siissie 
1 iiT 1 T ia tbe ktstGvical field. 

3^7^:-: rtts Hi5tc»ical Society.. 

wMA bad beem ^rorwiaf ap for Hdny yeaz?. and vbidb tibat Soci- 
ety eatffely £st?sarded. 1a 1^I4^ a fev iadividaals, iadndiB^ 
99Beabie bisiorieal vTiier^«3Bie to ike coadaaoa. tbat as a 



vast amount of historical documents; lying in MS., was fast going 
to destruction, the united efforts of an organization was indispen- 
sably necessary to rescue them from such fate. This was a prin- 
cipal incentive to the formation of a new Society. The Xew 
England Historic- Genealogical Societt was the result. 

From 1792 to 1858 — 66 years — the Massachusetts Historical 
Society has printed 33 volumes, in 8vo., each averaging not above, 
we think. 320 pasres. These pages do not average above 1000 
ems each ; hence a volume contains about 320.000 ems. 

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 
published under the authority of the Xew England Historic- 
Genealogical Society, averages above 400 pages to the volume. 
and more than 1800 ems to the page; and hence a volume con- 
tains more than 720.000 ems. or more than double the amount of 
matter contained in a volume of the Collections of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society. 

Again. Their volumes are made up of a large proportion of 
matter from works afready in print : works of sufficient import- 
ance, in almost every instance, to require new editions in separate 
volumes, independent of their having been reprinted in those Col- 
lections, and at no very distant day. 

Again. On a comparison of the Collections of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society with the Xew England Historical and 
Genealogical Register, it will be seen that the latter is made up 
of origiual documents, the decaying records of towns, parishes, 
original letters, burying-ground inscriptions, &c. <fec. : and that one 
volume of the Register contains as much matter as two and a 
quarter volumes of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Col- 
lections : or that the thirty-three volumes of the Collections now 
published are not more than equal, in amount of matter, to four- 
teen and two-thirds volumes of said Register. Hence it is ob- 
vious that the Massachusetts Historical Society has not. in sixty- 
six years, published, in reality, fotir volumes more than the Xew 
England Historic-Genealogical Society has done in eleven years. 

Xow, if the matter reprinted in the Collections of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society be subtracted from what may be con- 
sidered original, the amount of their published matter will fall 
far short of matter publishpd in the Xew England Historical and 
Genealosrical Registf^r. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



llllllllliillllllill 

^ 013 935 063 P # 

So much for the publications of the respective Societies — the 
former of which are so formidably displayed in the " Memorial " 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

The Petitioners ask for the proposed change, because — 

1st. The desired name is in better taste, and more euphonious 
than their corporate title. 

2d. Because it corresponds with the title of the Periodical 
issued by the Society. 

3d. It is the name by which the Society is generally designat- 
ed and known. 

In conclusion, the undersigned must be indulged the remark, 
that he and the Society he represents entertain the kindest wishes 
for the prosperity of the Massachusetts Historical Society, as tlie 
pioneer in the great work of associated historical labor in the 
Commonwealth. They rejoice in its augmented resources and its 
reviving activity. All this they can sincerely feel and freely avow, 
and yet maintain the position that they do not ask for any thing 
which will impair the usefulness or confound the interests of either 
Society. 

All which is respectfully submitted, in behalf of the New Eng- 
land Historic-Genealogical Society, by 

FRANCIS BRINLEY. 
Boston, Feb. 22, 1858, 












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